ATLANTA — Come along to a secret lab in a Vibranium mine, deep in the mountains of Wakanda. This is the technology workshop of the princess Shuri, sister of the mighty T’Challa and creative genius of the nation.

This is the place where she creates a suit for her brother’s transformation into Black Panther.

But wait! Why has an outsider been brought into this protected place?

To be continued …

That, ladies and gents, is a glimpse of what reporters got to see during a set visit to Atlanta during the filming of Black Panther. As with all Marvel Universe productions, Black Panther is locked down, leak-proof and carefully protected from spoilers, hidden away to the point where British actor Daniel Kaluuya, (who plays T’Challa’s right hand man, W’Kabi) seems to have missed his own success in Get Out.

When Get Out opened in theatres, Kaluuya was already deeply immersed in the world of superheroes.

Every person involved with the movie spoke of the pride and responsibility they felt at being part of a black superhero movie.

Every element of Black Panther’s world has been created with extraordinary attention to detail. Certainly, you will believe that the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda — for which a language was invented — is a real place.

And please, even when Black Panther opens February 16, keep the major plot points to yourself. As Martin Freeman said, “When people do spoil it for folks, it’s a pain in the ass. You want to keep things a surprise. These films tap into a deep, deep childhood experience within us all. And kids like being surprised. I think it’s worth trying to maintain that.”

Here are 10 cool things we learned about Black Panther:

1. MORE THAN ONE BLACK PANTHER MOVIE SEEMS CERTAIN

The world of Wakanda is far too elaborate for a one-movie situation. Nobody was at liberty to comment about that, but questions about that sort of thing prompted the exchange of furtive looks among cast and crew.

We’ll take that as a hopeful sign. But stay away from the poker table, Black Panther folks.

He says the movie, “Is an African blockbuster, that’s how I see it. There’s a scene at Warrior Falls, when Black Panther comes back, and when Chad [Boseman] came out on set I got genuine chills. If you’re a kid watching this, you’re just going to go, ‘Wow!’ If I’d seen it as a kid I’d have thought it was mind-blowing.

“At age 28 I still find it mind-blowing.”

3. PANTHER’S SISTER IS AN INVENTOR AND A ROLE MODEL

Letitia Wright, 24, plays Shuri, inventor sister of Black Panther.

“She creates a lot of the cool gadgets for her brother that will protect him when he goes out, and that’s her way of saying I love you. It’s a relationship that’s great to see on screen. I really pray people will be inspired by Shuri,” says Wright. “She’s into technology, she’s intelligent, she’s really witty and funny and she has a great fashion sense! The women in this film — off the charts, will be inspiring. Not just for women of colour but for all women, around the world.”

4. EVERETT ROSS IS ONE OF THE FIRST OUTSIDERS TO SEE WAKANDA

Martin Freeman, 46, plays federal agent, Everett Ross, a character first introduced in Captain America, Civil War. He is an ally of Black Panther’s.

“Ross is a fish out of water in Wakanda. When he gets to Wakanda, he’s flabbergasted at what he finds. Nobody but Wakandians know what’s the hell’s going on there… It’s an incredibly technologically advanced, First World country that nobody knows about. It’s shut itself off for its own safety and existence’s sake. Like a CIA guy would, he assumes there really isn’t going to be much in this Central African country that nobody’s even heard of that’s really going to surprise him, but then he wakes up. And it’s like, oh my God, something from 70 years in the future. So it’s kind of amazing.”

5. BLACK PANTHER HAS HUGE CULTURAL HEFT

Lupita Nyong’o is Nakia, a childhood friend of Black Panther trained to be in the King’s armed guards, the all-female Dora Milaje. The Oscar winning actress addressed the cultural impact of the film.

“I feel like Ryan [Coogler] was kind of foretelling the future when he was writing this film. So many themes that are so applicable to right now. Even more so than even half a year ago … I can’t say more without getting fired.” She laughs. “It’s a very aspirational film to people of African descent. For me as an African, when I walk on set and see those costumes and those characters, it’s what the Continent could have been had Colonialism not happened. Which is really cool. We’ve borrowed and stolen from African cultures you will recognize, and then, they’ve kind of pressed the accelerator into the future of what those peoples could look like, be like, if we weren’t all getting so westernized. It’s a really exciting thing for everybody to experience, because there’s a call to the past, but also a reach for the future in how this has been designed, conceptualized and realized.”

6. THE ROLE OF BLACK PANTHER IS JUST ABOUT IDEAL

The filmmakers say Chadwick Boseman, 41, was the first and only choice to play Black Panther. Boseman (Get on Up; 42) takes the role very seriously. “Every once in a while, I think about what it means to be doing a movie of this stature with black people in it, with this many special effects and technology and with this much money behind it … Image? The luxury is, I don’t have to think about image this time. Usually, as a black actor, you have to think about image because (there are) so many negative choices being made on your behalf, so many ignorant choices being made, because people don’t realize what they’re doing, what they’re saying. But with this, it’s much different. It’s already set in place with the images you want to be there, to exist. The luxury is to not have to worry about, ‘Is this going to look bad on black people?’ So I’m not thinking about it, actually. This is unprecedented.”

7. ON THE OTHER HAND, HIS SUPERHERO SUIT WAS BRUTAL

Yes, Boseman was laughing when he talked about this:

“I don’t think any of the suits are as bad as this one. Again, I’ve never been in those suits, but in this one, particularly when you have the mask on, there’s no part of your body that’s uncovered. There’s gloves and everything and there’s just no air coming in. It’s made from a mould of my body. But a mould of my body before we started working out. So it’s tighter than tight. Literally like skin on your body.”

8. WHENCE WAKANDA?

Let’s hear from production designer Hannah Beachler (Moonlight; Beyonce’s Lemonade). “We wanted to be sure we were honouring the idea of Motherland, and mixing it well with the idea of Marvel. A big piece of that was Africa. We were looking at tribes and different cultures in eastern Africa, so that’s where most of this derived from. DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is there a bit, with the impenetrable forest, because that’s beautiful and mystic, and the Rwenzori Mountains, and Uganda with a lot of their farmland. Their land looks very graphic. And Zambia, with Victoria Falls, which you’ll see with Warrior Falls. So there’s something from everywhere within our Wakanda, which is roughly placed near the border of DRC and Uganda … The biggest thing about Wakanda is Vibranium. There’s a full working mine where Shuri’s lab is. The princess is kind of an Einstein girl — she creates a lot of the new technology of Wakanda. It’s a 10,000 year old civilization and they’ve had technology from the inception.”

9. BLACK PANTHER IS NOT YOUR REGULAR SUPERHERO

Executive producer Nate Moore says when Black Panther first appeared in Civil War, people were thrilled and amazed. “He’s a superhero, but also the king of a country. So the repercussions of his actions carry over politically as well as personally. Captain American can go on an adventure and the worst thing that can happen to him, which has happened, is to become an enemy of the state for a while.

“Black Panther is responsible not only for himself but for an entire country of people. He’s making decisions both as a hero and as a politician. That’s something on a character level that nobody else in the Marvel Universe has to deal with. That allows us to tell stories that are really complicated.”

10. AND KLAW IS NOT YOUR REGULAR VILLAIN

Says Nate Moore, “Klaw, in the Panther mythology, is #1 or #1A the most important villain. When we introduced him in Age of Ultron, we weren’t sure how it would pan out, if we were going to do a Panther movie or not. Once it did, one of the first phone calls we made was to Andy Serkis. He’s so talented. Seeing him on set is amazing. Klaw is a really cool villain. He’s different from our other villains, and obviously there are personal connections with Panther we get to explore. Performance wise, he brings such live wire, crazy energy to the movie.”

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